Adobe’s Flash Player has the bad reputation of an insecure piece of software and it’s not a secret that it is affected by tens of vulnerabilities every year, with the parent company launching patches every single month.
As a result, running an outdated version of Flash Player is extremely risky and Microsoft is trying to make sure that you’re on the latest build by making some changes to Internet Explorer.
Starting October 11, 2016, old versions of Flash Player will be automatically blocked in Internet Explorer on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 - this decision does not impact Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 users, as these systems are automatically updated to the latest version of Flash Player when it is released.
“Starting on October 11, 2016, we’re expanding the out-of-date ActiveX control blocking feature to include outdated versions of Adobe Flash Player. This update notifies you when a Web page tries to load a Flash ActiveX control older than (but not including): Adobe Flash Player version 21.0.0.198 and Adobe Flash Player Extended Support Release version 18.0.0.241,” Microsoft announced today.
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